VOLUME 5, ISSUE 1, JAN–APR 2020 THE WORK OF ARTS Aestethics and Subaltern Politics in China The Made in China Journal is a quarterly on Chinese labour, civil society, and rights. This project has been produced with the financial assistance of the Australian Centre on China in the World (CIW), The Australian National University, and the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University. The views expressed are those of the individual authors and do not represent the views of CIW, Lund University, or the institutions to which the authors are affiliated. Made in China Journal is published by ANU Press The Australian National University Acton ACT 2601, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is available online at press.anu.edu.au ISSN 2206 9119 (online) All issues are published under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). The full licence terms are available at creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode This edition © 2020 ANU Press EDITORS IN CHIEF Ivan Franceschini and Nicholas Loubere AIMS AND SCOPE: The Made in China Journal (MIC) is a publication focussing on labour, civil society, and human rights in China. It is founded on the belief that spreading awareness of the complexities and nuances underpinning socioeconomic change in contemporary Chinese society is important, especially considering how in today’s globalised world Chinese labour issues have reverberations that go well beyond national borders. MIC rests on two pillars: the conviction that today, more than ever, it is necessary to bridge the gap between the scholarly community and the general public, and the related belief that open access publishing is necessary to ethically reappropriate academic research from commercial publishers who restrict the free circulation of ideas. INFORMATION FOR CONTRIBUTORS: Authors are invited to submit articles, notes, or book reviews, but are encouraged to discuss their ideas with the editors beforehand. All manuscripts are subject to a refereeing process. Manuscripts and editorial correspondence should be emailed to: [email protected]. INFORMATION FOR READERS: The Made in China Journal is published by ANU Press three times a year. It is freely available online with ANU Press (press.anu.edu.au) or at madeinchinajournal.com. NOTE ON VISUAL MATERIAL All images in this publication have been fully accredited. As this is a non-commercial publication, certain images have been used under a Creative Commons licence. These images have been sourced from Flickr, Wikipedia Commons and the copyright owner of each original picture is acknowledged and indicated in the source information. The Australian Centre on China in the World is an initiative of the Commonwealth Government of Australia and The Australian National University. ‘Art must not be concentrated in dead shrines called museums. It must be spread everywhere—on the streets, in the trams, factories, workshops, and in the workers’ homes.’ Vladimir Mayakovsky, 1918 (translated by Mikhail Anikst) TABLE OF CONTENTS EDITORIAL P. 8 BRIEFS P. 10 OP-EDS P. 14 THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF SINOPHOBIA P. 16 VOLUME 5, ISSUE #1 Gerald ROCHE JAN–APR 2020 ISSN 2206-9119 TRADE UNION REFORM IN CHINA: AN ASSESSMENT P. 19 CHIEF EDITORS Geoffrey CROTHALL Ivan Franceschini, Nicholas Loubere CHINA COLUMNS P. 24 GUEST EDITOR Christian Sorace REVOLUTION AND STATE FORMATION AS OASIS STORYTELLING IN XINJIANG P. 26 EDITORIAL BOARD Bilal Zenab AHMED Yige Dong, Kevin Lin, Andrea Enrico Pia, Holly Snape, Hong Zhang THE COAL TRANSITION IN DATONG AN ETHNOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVE P. 34 ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Judith AUDIN Bilal Zenab Ahmed, Joel Andreas, Judith Audin, A. C. Baecker, Cai Qing, Anita Chan, THE END OF SWEATSHOPS? Tina Mai Chen, Christopher Connery, ROBOTISATION AND THE MAKING OF NEW Geoffrey Crothall, Mark Frazier, Ruben SKILLED WORKERS IN CHINA P. 44 Gonzalez-Vicente, Timothy Grose, Aaron Hui XU Halegua, Benjamin Kindler, Goeun Lee, IS THE SKY FALLING IN ON WOMEN Adam Liebman, Liu Shao-hua, Juliet Lu, Jane IN CHINA? P. 50 Millar, Federico Picerni, Gerald Roche, Chris Robert WALKER and Jane MILLAR Smith, Angela Tritto, Paola Voci, Robert Walker, Wang Hui, Jingyi Wang (Veronica), GARBAGE AS VALUE AND SORTING Hui Xu, Zeng Jinyan, Yu Zheng AS LABOUR IN CHINA’S NEW WASTE POLICY P. 56 COPY-EDITING Adam LIEBMAN and Goeun LEE Sharon Strange EPIDEMIC CONTROL IN CHINA EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS A CONVERSATION WITH LIU SHAO-HUA P. 65 Angelina Chen, Ruixue Zhou, Zeng Zhen ZENG Jinyan ART DIRECTION FOCUS P. 78 Tommaso Facchin AMATEUR ART PRACTICE AND THE COVER ARTWORK EVERYDAY IN SOCIALIST CHINA P. 80 Marc Verdugo A. C. BAECKER AESTHETICS OF SOCIALIST VARIETIES OF CAPITAL AND INTERNATIONALISM: LENIN FILMS IN THE PREDISTRIBUTION: THE FOUNDATIONS OF PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA P. 88 CHINESE INFRASTRUCTURAL INVESTMENT Tina Mai CHEN IN THE CARIBBEAN P. 164 Ruben GONZALEZ-VICENTE HOW DOES THE PHOENIX ACHIEVE NIRVANA? P. 94 VARIETY OF CAPITAL? CHINESE WANG Hui MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS IN EUROPE P. 170 CAN THE CREATIVE SUBALTERN SPEAK? Yu ZHENG and Chris SMITH DAFEN VILLAGE PAINTERS, VAN GOGH, AND THE POLITICS OF ‘TRUE ART’ P. 104 WORK OF ARTS P. 174 Paola VOCI AMERICAN FACTORY: CLASH OF RISK: THE HIDDEN POWER OF ART CULTURES OR A CLASH OF LABOUR CREATION P. 112 AND CAPITAL? P. 175 CAI Qing Anita CHAN TOWARDS A PARTISAN AESTHETICS ZHOU YANG, CHERNYSHEVSKY, WINDOW ON ASIA P. 180 AND ‘LIFE’ P. 118 CONTENTIOUS EMBEDDEDNESS Benjamin KINDLER CHINESE STATE CAPITAL AND THE BELT A PROLETARIAN NORA: DISCUSSING AND ROAD INITIATIVE IN INDONESIA P. 182 FAN YUSU P. 125 Angela TRITTO Federico PICERNI CONVERSATIONS P. 188 POETRY AFTER THE FUTURE P. 130 Christian SORACE DISENFRANCHISED / JOEL ANDREAS P. 188 Ivan FRANCESCHINI WORLD FACTORY P. 136 Christopher CONNERY NEGOTIATING INSEPARABILITY IN CHINA / TIMOTHY GROSE P. 192 FROM REBELLION TO ERASURE Ivan FRANCESCHINI THE RISE AND FALL OF URBAN FOLK ROCKER LI ZHI P. 146 THE POWER OF PLACE / Jingyi WANG (Veronica) MARK FRAZIER P. 197 Ivan FRANCESCHINI FORUM P. 152 CONTRIBUTORS P. 202 STRATEGIC RESOURCES AND CHINESE STATE CAPITAL: A VIEW FROM LAOS P. 154 BIBLIOGRAPHY P. 207 Juliet LU FROM AFRICA TO SAIPAN: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN CHINESE CONSTRUCTION FIRMS ‘GO GLOBAL’? P. 160 Aaron HALEGUA EDITORIAL merely supposed to be a more just one or one that would provide greater economic security, but it was also and in perhaps in even greater measure meant to be beautiful.’ Walking in these steps, the Chinese Revolution was a project of further experimentation and creation in the realm of the relationship between art and the people. The world it created was at once utopian and disfigured, radiant and desolate. While today that world is no longer, the questions it raised about the relationship between the working class, artistic production, and aesthetic appreciation remain with us. This issue of the Made in China Journal offers a collection of essays that examine the ‘work of arts’, intended as the extension of art beyond the confines of the museum and into the spaces of ordinary life and production. Art must not be The special section is divided in two parts— ‘Proletarian Images’ and ‘Proletarian Words’. In concentrated in dead ‘Proletarian Images’, A. C. Baecker examines shrines called museums. how amateur art practice during the socialist period in China changed the class and labour It must be spread relations that had previously defined the fine everywhere—on the streets, arts. Tina Mai Chen tracks the image of Lenin in the trams, factories, across Chinese film history to reveal different understandings of socialist internationalism workshops, and in the and their eventual eclipse. Wang Hui workers’ homes interprets the critically-acclaimed Phoenixes of Chinese artist Xu Bing as a gesture of refusal Vladimir Mayakovsky, 1918 in a world in which the symbols of revolution Translated by Mikhail Anikst and political art have become fashionable and lucrative commodities. Paola Voci delves into the case of Dafen village’s worker painters, The Work of Arts the focus of many celebratory state-promoted Aesthetics and Subaltern narratives and, more critically, transnational media and academic attention. Cai Qing Politics in China outlines a history of art performances both in China and the West characterised by violence done to the body. In ‘Proletarian Words’, ith these words, the great Soviet Benjamin Kindler looks back to past literary poet addressed the key question debates to excavate a Maoist politics of ‘life’ as Wof how to bring art to people the grounds for a new, proletarian aesthetics and people to art in a new world in which and as a counterpoint to the biologisation of old aristocracies, elites, and their aesthetic contemporary life. Federico Picerni digs into privileges were fading away. In the words of art the literary production of Fan Yusu, a migrant theorist Boris Groys, ‘the world promised by worker who in 2017 became an overnight the leaders of the October Revolution was not sensation in China after publishing her memoir 8 MADE IN CHINA / 1, 2020 EDITORIAL online. Christian Sorace reads migrant worker basis for collective resistance. Judith Audin poetry alongside Marx as a critique of labour adopts an ethnographic approach to describe exploitation and as a genre of mourning for a the social dimension of the restructuring lost future. Christopher Connery reflects on of the coal mining industry in Datong, an his experiences with the experimental theatre important coal cluster in Shanxi province. group Grass Stage and on the role of the latter Hui Xu explores how the policy of industrial in providing a social space for interrogating upgrading based on the extensive robotisation contemporary society. Finally, Jingyi Wang of the manufacturing sector pursued by profiles folk-rock singer Li Zhi, who achieved the Chinese authorities is impacting labour widespread popularity before being banned for relations in Chinese factories.